The Doctor's Gift
by BlackWolfHowling
Summary: The Doctor is always going around helping people and not asking for anything in return. So when someone appears on the TARDIS and says she can give him any one thing he asks for, what will he choose?


_AN: This takes place shortly after 'The God Complex' for those of you who might wonder._

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything_

The doctor stared sadly at a planet from the safety of the TARDIS. The people of this planet had begged him to help, but despite all of the things he could do, he wasn't able to stop a sun from going super nova. The people of the planet had thanked him for trying to help and he left them preparing to die.

He had decided that, even if he couldn't save the planet, the people wouldn't die unnoticed. So once he was a safe distance away he opened the door and watched, knowing it wouldn't be long until the sun died and took the planet with it.

The super nova just started when, to his shock, it stopped and there was a loud crash behind him. He turned around quickly and found someone who shouldn't be there.

"Amy," he said in shock. "What are you doing here? You should be with Rory on Earth."

"I apologize for the deception, Doctor," Amy said. "But I am not Amy Pond. If you'll humor me, I think I remain in this form. I picked it because the girl whose form I'm using—oh stop glaring at me, I didn't possess her, it's an illusion," she said, breaking off mid-sentence as the doctor was glaring with a look that could kill and reaching for his screw-driver. "As I was saying, I chose this form to put you at _ease_ when a perfect stranger showed up here. I'll only be a few minutes."

"Who are you?" The doctor demanded angrily.

"For someone that never tells anyone his name, I don't see how you have a right to go around demanding mine." She sighed in resignation. "But if you must call me something, then call me Laura."

"Very well then, Laura, what are you doing here?"

"To make you an offer," Laura said. When she looked at the doctor's expression she sighed. "I chose the form of your friend to use as an illusion because a familiar face usually puts people more at ease than that of a stranger's, but if you'd prefer I can change my face and voice."

"Why not just use your true form?"

"Because my true form is...a little complex even for you," Laura said with a shrug, snapping her fingers and shifting her appearance. Where before Amy Pond was standing in front of him, now there was an older woman with dark brown hair with strands of gray running through it and green eyes.

"Now if I have your attention, I have an offer to make."

"What is this offer?"

"Well, not so much an offer to make as a gift to give you. One of your choosing. My people are..." she hesitated, trying to find to correct word for what she meant. "Well I guess it depends on perspective. Some would call my people gods, others omnipotent, and others extraordinarily powerful.

"All my life I've been able to do things with a mere thought or a snap of my fingers that others would consider impossible. But now I'm old and all of these powers are, quite frankly, starting to bore me. I was going to just focus my powers internally and simply implode when you caught my interest. I've been watching you for years, centuries even. And I've noticed two patterns. Wherever you go destruction seems to follow, but also that you're a good person that helps everyone you possibly can."

"Is there a point to all of this, because I haven't had the best week and I'm sorry, but I don't have the patience to deal with a complete stranger showing up uninvited on my TARDIS."

"All right, all right," Laura said, holding her hands up in the universal sign of surrender. "No need to get that testy. Anyway, I have a list of all the people you've helped and how you've helped them so long that not even your TARDIS can hold it."

"To the point," the doctor snapped.

"The point is, I intend to return the favor. I figure you've _given _enough in your lifetimes that it's high time you _received_ something."

"Something like what?"

"Anything you chose. For example, I can return any one of your friends that you've lost. For example Rose Tyler."

"That's impossible. Rose is in another universe. An _alternate_ universe," the doctor protested.

"Just because _you_ can't universe hop doesn't mean _I_ can't," Laura said. "And if you keep interrupting me I'm going to change my mind about giving you something."

"A question, if I may." Laura nodded her head. "Why? Why are you so determined to give me something?"

"Because my people are the Guardians. We have no one form so as to allow ourselves to choose the form that would most help us on whatever planet we visit. Things that we can prevent, we prevent, but we can only do so much or no one will be able to grow. Consider this a thank you from all of us for making our job just a little bit easier."

"So that's all you can do, then, bring one person back from a parallel dimension?"

"Now I may have shown up uninvited, but there's no reason to insult me," Laura said with some indignation in her voice.

"I could bring back Rose, I could restore the memory of Donna Noble, or even bring back Amy and Rory and insure that no matter the dangers you face they'll be protected." As she spoke, she showed the doctor hollowgrams of the people she mentioned.

"Or I could correct this odd tango you and River have going. Your past will no longer be her future, or her past will no longer be your future whichever one it is. You would both be in the same time-stream and could be happy if you so wished. Maybe even live on Earth near River's parents." Laura smiled in amusement at the mention of River's parents as she found it amusing that River was very likely older than her parents were.

"Or if you want, I could bring back," she momentarily pulled a face at the realization that she was going to have to say it, "Sexy. She's still in here," she gently touched the TARDIS. "I could bring her back."

The entire time she was talking, she kept an eye on the doctor, watching his expression. There was one more thing that she needed to mention, but she needed to make sure that he would handle it.

"There is one more thing that I can do, but you might want to sit down first," she said, though her tone implied that it wasn't a request. Once the doctor was seated, Laura waited another moment.

"I know you're a Time Lord, but time and space, while they mean something to you, don't have as much meaning to my people," she said slowly, paying closer attention than she ever had to the doctor's expression.

"If you choose this as your gift, I can prevent the war with the Daleks from ever having started. I could make it so your home was never destroyed." She watched closely as the doctor's face went from attentive, to shocked, to hopeful, to disbelief, then back to cautious hope.

"I can change the history of your planet slightly. It will never have been destroyed, you, in an almost miraculous manner, took the TARDIS and stopped the Daleks and Time Lords from trying to destroy themselves and in their gratitude you were given your TARDIS. You would still meet the friends you made, and you would still lose them. But you would have a home to go to at the end of the day."

The doctor slowly shook his head as if to clear it.

"So you're saying I can make any one request, no matter how impossible and you'll grant it?" Laura nodded her head, waiting for his request.

"Normally when I give people this option I also give them time to think about it, otherwise you might regret your choice. So if you could tell me when you think you'll have an answer, I'll come back then."

"I already know what I'm going to ask for," the doctor said, with a hint of sadness in his voice. "Save that planet down there. Restore their sun so that they can live and thrive for a few thousand more years."

"Think carefully, Doctor," Laura said. "I can do what you asked, but I'm only making this offer once. This is the kind of offer that happens only once in a lifetime, no matter how many lifetimes you have, the odds of this happening again are astronomically against it. Are you _certain_ that this is what you want?"

"I'm not finished," the doctor said. "Don't think that with all your talk about what you can give me that I forgot your plan. So my request is for you to restore that planet's sun, and then for you to find somewhere that you'll be happy and _live_. Because even though I've only just met you I can tell that you're a good person and the universe would have lost something."

"Doctor, even by my people's standards I'm old," Laura said with a laugh. "I imagine I've only got a few centuries of life left in me."

"Then live those few centuries. That's my request. That's what I would like for you to give me. And it doesn't matter how many times you ask, my mind is set on this request. So if you truly can give me any one thing I ask for, then give me that."

Laura shook her head with a smile.

"Even knowing you could have had anything you wanted for yourself, you took the chance to save that planet. Looks like I made the right decision in choosing to give this offer to you, an offer I can only make once in my life. Very well, Doctor, it's done. The planet is saved, and if I'm not mistaken you'll be receiving the planet's thanks for saving their lives." That said, Laura vanished just as, as Laura said, the thanks from the planet started pouring into the TARDIS. In the back of a large crowd, just visible was a woman that the Doctor knew he hadn't seen earlier.

"Looks like Laura granted my entire request and found a planet to live on," he said with a smile before setting coordinates in the TARDIS.

"Now that that's done, I think I'll pay Amy and Rory a visit. They won't believe what's just happened."

_AN: Not the best thing written, I know, but it's my first time in this genre and it was a plot bunny that wouldn't let me go. Critiques are welcome._


End file.
